Milestones

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Copyrighted. The name of Mother Teresa, the nun and Nobel laureate who died in 1997 after a life of caring for the poor and the sick; by the order of nuns she founded, the Missionaries of Charity; in Calcutta. The nuns said they sought the rights to Mother Teresa's name, the name of their order and its rosary-encircled globe logo to prevent them from being exploited by commercial interests.

Convicted. Darko Mrdja, 36, Bosnian Serb police commander whose officers killed more than 200 Muslim men in 1992; after pleading guilty to a charge of murder as a war crime and a second charge of a crime against humanity; in the Hague, the Netherlands. During the massacre, the victims were taken to a cliff in central Bosnia, supposedly for a prisoner exchange. "Here is where we do the exchange," Mrdja is alleged to have said, "the living for the living, and the dead." Then the police opened fire.

Died. Deng Liujin, 91, Chinese communist and one of the few women who completed the Long March; in Beijing. Deng stayed close to the Party after serving as a stretcher-bearer during the communist rebels' 1930s escape from Nationalist forces. Her husband, Zeng Shan, served as Minister of Internal Affairs in 1960, and their son, Zeng Qinghong, is currently China's Vice President.

Died. Nicolas Freeling, 76, British crime writer whose Dutch detective character Piet Van der Valk and French sleuth Henri Castang propelled dozens of popular novels; in eastern France. Freeling wrote nearly 40 books and was credited with elevating the crime genre by creating probing examinations of complex personalities.

Died. John Schlesinger, 77, Oscar-winning British director famous for edgy dramas examining human frailty; in Palm Springs, California. Schlesinger is best known for his gritty 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, which starred Dustin Hoffman as an ailing con man and Jon Voight as the naive cowboy of the title who becomes a gigolo to survive in New York City. Schlesinger's 1976 thriller Marathon Man, about a college student on the run from a former Nazi, also featured Hoffman. He said of the director: "Shakespeare said it best in Hamlet, 'We will never see the likes of him again.'"

Murdered. James Davis, 41, New York City councilman known for his campaign against violence, was shot dead during a council meeting; in New York City. Davis' assailant was a political opponent, 31-year-old Othniel Askew, who apparently smuggled a gun in as he accompanied Davis through a security checkpoint (council members and their guests routinely bypass metal detectors). After he pumped several bullets into Davis, Askew was in turn shot dead by a police officer. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was only a few doors away, vowed to tighten City Hall security.